Anthony Joshua vs Riddick Bowe: 'I would have KO'd AJ'

Fight legend, hall of famer and former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe (43-1, 33 KO) believes today's crop of heavyweights wouldn't have been able to handle a prime version of himself, especially surging WBA/IBF champ Anthony Joshua.

Bowe, now 50, recently told The Royal Gazette:

“I could handle those guys without question. Anthony Joshua is no Riddick Bowe. He’s a pretty good boxer, he takes a pretty good shot, but he ain’t been hit by Riddick Bowe."

"When I put the African soup bone (Bowe's famous overhand right) on him ... night, night! He’s going to sleep.”

An Olympic silver medalist in 1988, he turned pro the following amid concerns he lacked heart and dedication. Despite Bowe's reputation as a lazy amateur, highly-regarded trainer Eddie Futch, seeing great potential, took on the job of developing Bowe and had always insisted Riddick had more potential than any boxer he had ever trained, including Larry Holmes and Joe Frazier.

Boasting a long, quick left jab, awesome in-fighting ability and a nasty overhand right, the very durable Bowe is best remembered for his trilogy of fights with Evander Holyfield and two brutal bouts with Andrew Golota,

Bowe's only professional defeat came by a majority decision loss to Holyfield in their first rematch in 1993.

“Me and Evander Holyfield are both retired, so I don’t think heavyweight boxing will ever be the same again, Bowe declared.

“I heard Joshua say he would beat Evander Holyfield. I think not. Evander Holyfield in his prime would have killed Joshua.”

Riddick Bowe facts

Lost to Lennox Lewis for the Olympic gold medal in 1988

Had 3 epic fights with Evander Holyfield; Bowe won two.

Bowe was never KO'd

Refused to fight top contender Lennox Lewis in 1993 under 'fair' terms and relinguished the WBC title as a result.

Bowe announced he would leave his wife and children and large fleet of cars in Fort Washington, MD to join the United States Marine Corps. He dropped out of boot camp soon afterward

In a second comeback fight in April 2005, Bowe narrowly defeated journeyman Billy Zumbrun, in a fight in which Bowe was badly overweight and absorbed many heavy blows from Zumbrun.